


Mantis Strike

by Ysavvryl



Category: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27870966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Flick's been invited to a poetry reading, but someone there is quite afraid of bugs.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Mantis Strike

**Author's Note:**

  * For [winterhill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterhill/gifts).



Maybe he shouldn’t be here; maybe they’d hate his poem. But he was here, so he should at least try. Flick did his best to keep his nervous jitters down. After all, the rest were having fun with this poetry reading, acting dramatic or solemn. One rabbit even had a little dance routine with her poem. There were no critiques (yet) with at least some polite clapping as a reply. While poetry wasn’t something he did often, this one had come to him in a bolt of inspiration once and he still treasured it. Those who had seen it seemed to like it, so it should be okay.

Flick was here on chance anyhow. Earlier this week, he’d come to Outset Island to search for bugs. It was a lush haven for insects, full of trees and flowers. Plus, the island representative was an ace at bug catching. She had been the one to invite him to this poetry reading; Aryll had wanted to do something fun and creative, leading to this event. Most of the island residents were here, along with a few other visitors that Aryll had invited. So far, it had been fun to listen to the others.

And then, it was his turn. The reading area had been surrounded by blooming hibiscus bushes in this garden, while visitors were given a variety of garden chairs, benches, or cushions to sit on. There were some common and yellow butterflies flitting around the hibiscus, making a lovely scene. With his scarab notebook in hand, Flick went into the middle of the hibiscus stage. “Um, this is my poem ‘Mantis Strike’,” he said, doing his best not to fidget too much. “I hope you enjoy it.”

All eyes were on him. Aryll gave an encouraging smile. Despite how Flick wasn’t around Outset often, she was a good friend to him. She’d stick up for him if something bad happened. That helped calm his nerves.

This poem required a regal air, a great respect for the mantis. “She sways, on a blade of grass,” he recited, swaying a little himself. “She hunts, as a blade of grass. The prey walks, not heeding the hunter.”

A few in the audience leaned forward, listening in eagerness.

Into the reading now, Flick looked them over and spoke a little more intensely. “She has waited since dawn, patient as the grass. She survived alone out of a hatching of hundreds. And now, she waits, she watches, she shifts… she strikes!”

And then someone fainted with a loud thump. Flick got so flustered that he wasn’t sure what happened the next couple of minutes. The poetry reading was put on hold. From where he ended up, he must have wandered off to another part of the garden to be out of the way. The other inhabitants were trying to help the fainted owl out. Was that just a bad coincidence?

But the enthusiastic rabbit had followed Flick over. “Hey, you were AWESOME out there!” she said with a big grin. “Like, I wasn’t sure what to expect outta you cause you’re all quiet and hanging off by yourself when you’re around. But you were soooo intense there! It was like, boom, just like a mantis snatching another bug!”

“That is what I wrote about, transposing myself to being within the mind of the mantis,” Flick said. “Although, I didn’t get to finish reading the poem. Who was that?”

“The guy who fainted?” she asked, glancing back at the group. “He’ll be okay! Um, I’m pretty sure. Anyhow, that’s Blathers, our museum curator! He’s a super smart guy, but he’s kinda scared of bugs. He freaks when you show him one! Maybe your poem was so intensely buggy that he passed out from it?”

“Err, I didn’t mean to frighten anyone that much,” he said. Or to frighten them at all. Insects were a common phobia; that was a fact of the world. As much as he wanted to get more people to embrace bugs for the natural wonders they were, it would be cruel to push that view on those afraid of bugs.

She didn’t seem worried. “It’s okay, he’ll bounce back before long. I hope we get to have another poetry slam, though. And you’ll come back, right?”

“I’ll think about it,” he said. The main problem was that all of his poems were about bugs. If Blathers was there again, he wouldn’t be able to read one.

“Anyhow, I just wanted to say how awesome you are, so yeah, you’re awesome!” She then skipped off humming.

“Uh, I guess?” Flick said, scratching his head. And it seemed Blathers already was back on his feet; another owl was helping him. They were coming his way too. Once they were close, Flick said, “E-excuse me but I’m very sorry my poem did that to you. I didn’t realize it would be a problem.” He even bowed for good measure.

“It’s fine, sorry to worry you,” Blathers said, still shaken. The two owls moved on.

While it was nice that Blathers seemed to forgive him, Flick still felt bad about the mess. He decided to go find Aryll; the sole human on this island was cleaning up around the reading area. “Hey, I’m sorry about messing things up,” he said. “I know you did a lot to get this event going.”

“It’s fine,” she said, giving him a smile. “I probably should’ve warn Blathers that you’d have a bug-related poem. He should be fine tomorrow.”

“That’s nice,” Flick said. “Um, it seems all is forgiven, but I still feel bad about this. So, um, what does Blathers like? I heard he doesn’t like bugs, which’ll be difficult but I should be able to do something.”

Without hesitation, she said, “He loves fossils and gets so happy when I bring some in. Oh yeah! And he loves coffee too. I found that out by chance when I was chatting with him one night. He’s a nice guy, though; I’m sure he won’t hold a grudge against you.”

“I’d feel bad either way,” Flick said. “Thanks for telling me that; I think I can do something nice for him now.”

In particular, a coffee mug would be a fine apology gift. They weren’t hard to design; he’d done a few in school, but not since. Flick got out a sketchbook on the flight back home to test out a few designs. While it was a simple design, the simplicity could be built upon to turn an ordinary object into an extraordinary one. Like using a graceful mantis for a handle! With a lush grassy design that had little ground beetles and ladybugs and ants peeking through!

No, scratch that one. At least for the apology gift. He could make a mantis mug for himself later. Then, hmmm… how about one with shimmering luster in rich colors… like scarab shells! With some antique touches to refer to the scarab’s inspiring history!

No, scratch that one too. It would be beautiful, but not in the eyes of the recipient. Then perhaps something based on the mysterious moth? He always wanted to draw particular attention to moths and bring them the love and adoration they deserved. They were gorgeous, but a certain somebody had referred to them as being like powdered donuts… guh! They were delicate beauties of the night, not snacks!

No, not that either. Though he would make a moth mug too, along with the scarab mug and the mantis mug. Then what about fossils? Flick didn’t know much about them, although he adored amber. Sometimes, one could find ancient insects inside. It was tragic for the bug itself, but the amber preserved their beauty for generations to come. Although if Blathers was going to use the mug for his coffee, he wouldn’t be using an amber-themed mug with insects in the design. So then what?

Flick didn’t find a design that gripped him that evening. When working on subjects other than bugs, that was often difficult. Sleeping on it didn’t help much, but it gave him an idea. “I’m going to the museum today,” he told CJ over breakfast.

“That place?” CJ asked, looking puzzled. “They only keep old bones there.”

He nodded; that was a peculiarity to their local museum. It was a research center rather than a general museum with multiple galleries. As such, neither of them had been there. “Yes, but I’m trying to make an apology gift to someone I made faint from fright over a poem I wrote.”

“Well that’s quite a feat to knock someone off their feet,” he said jokingly.

“I didn’t get to finish reading my poem,” Flick said sadly. “It was the mantis one, where I got into character and described a magnificent hunt. But I heard that he loves fossils and coffee, so I was going to make a fossil-themed coffee mug for him. But alas, my muse keeps offering wonderful ideas that nevertheless would also frighten him. At any rate, I’ll have a line of unique mugs to offer soon. But I want to finish the fossil one soon so I can give it to him.”

“Ah, I get ya,” CJ said with a nod. “And hey, maybe I should come along! I hear they’ve identified a few new fish fossils, so it’d be something different to cover old fish on my livestream. Though it’d not be much of a ‘live’ stream, would it?” He laughed at his own joke.

“Uh, it’d be a bit of an afterlife stream,” he said.

“You got it!” he said. “I can find enough fish to make a good show about, so let’s go!”

Once CJ had called up his camera guy to meet them by the entrance, they headed out to the museum. The other two quickly found a curator and asked for a tour of the fish fossils. Flick went his own way, soon finding a display of various amber samples and the rare insect fossils. While they were fascinating (he could imagine how those bugs must have looked), he didn’t linger long in order to examine other fossils. The ancient bones were like stone, rough and browned. Flick could tell some spots where they had patched or smoothed bones. Surprisingly, all the bones seemed authentic even when patched. Had they come from multiple specimens? Or were they luckily found whole?

Flick took a few pictures of interesting specimens for reference. While he was doing so, a hen approached him. “Need any help with finding something?”

“Nothing in particular,” he said. He nearly stopped there, but some insight to break this block was needed. “Erm, but I was curious about something. I noticed that some bones are patched so they don’t fall apart, but none of them seem like they were fabricated to filling a missing one. Are these made from multiple creatures, or do they just come whole from the start?”

Her eye twitched at that. “Ah, in most cases, it’s the latter. Each unidentified fossil we find is a puzzle to figure out. Identified fossils can then be used like any item. Fortunately, this means that there are rarely missing bones.”

Fortunate? Then why did she seem annoyed? Maybe with him? Probably not. Flick replied, “That sounds strange. One would think it’d be natural for bones to get misplaced or taken away over thousands of years.”

“It’s likely something related to magic,” she said reluctantly, then huffed. “Sorry if I seem annoyed, but there was project started by the main Farway Museum to study pocket inventory and item icons. Due to the way fossils work, our branch had a big assignment in that investigation. I had high hopes that we could perform some true breakthrough of science!” Then she sighed. “But no matter what science we applied, the best explanation we could find was simply ‘that’s how magic does things’. It is so aggravating to spend all that time trying to reason things out and the old standby of magic is still the best we could discover!”

“That does sound aggravating,” Flick said. “But then, how is identifying fossils a puzzle if they pop out in completed forms when identified?”

She thought for a moment, then beckoned him over to a sign. There was an icon there of a blue stone with a bony spiral and stars on it. Pointing to it, she explained, “All fossils, no matter the size, get dug up looking just like this. You can think of it like a box with a jigsaw puzzle in it, only the box has no picture to show what the completed puzzle will look like. When you look into this stone like you look into your pocket, you can see some of the bones in the fossil. Theoretically, anybody could identify a fossil though brute force guessing. But we fossil appraisers spend years learning how to identify fossils in a minute or less by correctly identifying the signature bones. Then once you have the fossil’s identity, it turns into this icon, an identified fossil that can be placed.”

Flick nodded. “And that is just magic, finding its correct name to give it its correct form.”

That made her sigh again. “Yes, that’s how it is. At least the research helped us find ways to increase the amount of items a person could put in their pocket. That’s made life more convenient, not having to run back home constantly to store stuff away and get other stuff out. I still wish we could find some better way to explain all this without resorting to the crutch of dismissing it as magic. There must be some reason that magic is set to work like it does.”

Taking a photo of the sign so he had the two icons for reference, he said, “I wouldn’t know. But thank you; you’ve given me an idea for an art piece I was struggling with. Although, would you mind showing me the kind of signature bones in one fossil you’d be looking for? I don’t know much about fossils myself, but I would like to be as accurate as I can be while remaining artistic.”

She put a wing to her beak, thinking. “Ah, for art? Then you’d want something unmistakable… how about I show you a few distinct fossils along with their identifying bones? I wouldn’t know much about art, but that would let you pick one to fit your design best, huh?”

“That’d be a great assistance,” he said, giving a bow. “You have my gratitude.”

After touring around getting several different fossils to work with (including one large insect that delighted him), Flick took his pictures back home to work from. Personalized mugs were a common gift along with being a common DIY customization project. But those were designs applied to a simple base. He created entirely new items through his art pieces. That took its own magic, but not at the start. Taking some clay, Flick built up the basic mug. He could make some of his bug-design mugs more esoteric, but a basic practical design was a fine base too. It might be more appreciated by a coffee lover like Blathers.

But he would add his own touches to make this distinctive. Flick added some texturing around the outside, like the rough earth he’d seen in the museum displays. It should be pleasing to the eyes and fingers. Once he was satisfied with that, he added small amounts of clay to build up the two icons on either side of the handle. One would be the unidentified fossil, with the other being an identified fossil. He kept his photo of the sign up so he could get the icons exactly right. There, that seemed good.

Flick was making this as a gift, but as CJ often reminded him, he had to think of ways to make money too. To that end, they had a manufacturing machine in the basement that would replicate his models. One would be kept as a reference. If the model was a commission, the first product would go to the commissioner in exchange for providing the reference bugs or fish. The rest would be sold online. The fish models sold extremely well despite how Flick often thought they weren’t as great because he didn’t get as inspired. For the bug models, some like the butterflies sold out fast while others like the wharf roach and wasp barely sold at all. But when his models got into the hands of those who appreciated them, Flick felt satisfied with whatever the sales numbers ended up being.

For a mug like this, a good selling point would be customization options. It was still unfinished clay, but Flick went to the replicator to set his progress as a template. He then added the signature bones of a T-Rex skull in a weaving line around the mug, dancing around from unidentified to identified… from the mysterious to the known. That would be form one. Then use the other fossils as the other customizations, including the bug because Flick liked it. Blathers could just not use that customization it if made him uncomfortable.

He saved his work as he went along. Once he had all the forms to his liking, Flick set it in the kiln to fire for an hour. A couple stages of glazes were needed too, to get the colors he wanted, make sure it was food safe and easily washed, and keep the unique textures. By evening, he could use some customization kits to check on the looks of the mug in all forms. They all looked good, matching the photos he’d taken. He then set it in the replicator to register the fossil mug as a new item that could be sold. With his art degree, he was allowed to do so.

CJ came down as the replicator was making one of the fossil mugs. “That was a hoot and a half,” he said, happy with his work. “I thought the curator might be stuffy and boring, but he was as much of an afishcionado as I am! He even knew of my livestream and was glad to help out! So now I’ve got some videos in case I want a few days off for something.”

“That’s nice,” Flick said, then offered him the prototype mug. “Here, this is what I came up with.”

Looking it over, CJ smiled. “Ooo, this is a reel nice branching out. It’ll catch the eye of anybody with an interest in fossils. Does it have different customization options?”

He nodded. “The bones there are identifiers for the T-Rex skull, while the other customizations have identifiers for other fossils. I did eight of them.”

“Nice, this’ll be a hot seller for shore. I’ll get working on a marketing page, but we should have a good supply made before putting it out in the store. Maybe I’ll put out a teaser and get all your fans excited.”

“Ah,” he rubbed his head, feeling embarrassed. “You know, you don’t have to make a big deal about it. Those who seek my works will find them.”

“But I help them get found faster,” CJ said. “Like I always say, don’t worry about it; I like doing this stuff.”

“It is a big help,” Flick said. “I’ll be taking two this time.”

He gave one to the hen at the museum to thank her for the help. She loved it and asked about getting some to sell in the gift shop. After giving her CJ’s number to discuss it with him, Flick got a plane over to Outset. It was night by the time he got there, but it was fine. It meant that Blathers was awake in the museum lobby when Flick walked in. “Hoo, good evening,” he said in a friendly manner.

“Uh, good evening,” he said, then brought the mug out. “Here, I made this for you to apologize again for the poem. I hope this is better.”

His eyes widened at the sight of the mug. “Hoo my, you made this yourself?” he asked, taking it. “My word, it’s incredible! I’ve not seen a mug like this before. Thank you; you’re really talented.”

Good; Flick smiled. “I’m glad you like it. I usually create art of bugs, but I did my best without their guidance for this.”

“Ah, well I am uncomfortable around bugs,” Blathers said. “But you must like them a lot.”

“Like them?” Flick asked. “I absolutely adore any and all bugs! They are my muse. I will go anywhere to meet new bugs and find my soul bug, the one who will lift me to true enlightenment. But, uh, as much as I want to spread the joy and wonder of bugs, I don’t want to make anyone unhappy. I won’t push them on someone who’s afraid, knowingly at least.”

Blathers nodded. “Thanks. If we have any more poetry readings, though, don’t be offended if I leave for yours.”

“No offense taken,” Flick said, waggling his tail.

“Well I don’t believe I’ve seen you in here before,” Blathers said. “Did you know that we have a bug exhibit here too? It’s very nearly a complete collection, because, ah, Aryll has been very enthusiastic about donating everything, including bugs.”

“I’d believe that,” he said. “She’s very talented. I haven’t been in here, so it’d be nice to see.”

“Sure, it’s just over there,” Blathers said. He even walked over there with him.

What lay beyond the door was a veritable bug paradise. The arboretum in the first room held a variety of bug friendly environs for the residents to enjoy. Different parts held replicas of different forests: evergreen, palm, deciduous, even garden and river areas. And best of all, the bugs in the first room were all free. While diurnal bugs were sleeping now, the nocturnal bugs were out and about; many had gathered to a giant tree that held a hollow full of honey, to eat and hold strength contests. Even the usually dreaded wasps were allowed to fly free (although a sign near them warned visitors to not disturb their tree).

“I feel as though I’ve entered a wonderful dream,” Flick said in wonder, watching nearby cicadas sing in harmony. They were all vibrant and healthy.

“It’s designed to be enjoyable by both visitors and bugs,” Blathers said. “I go through every night to check up on the displays, to make sure everything is clean and working, and that they have plenty of food and good plants available. We have very high standards for every display and I won’t compromise on any of it! Thus, even if I have to prepare myself mentally to come in here, I give every creature in here a good home.”

And this was an owl who would faint at the thought of the magnificent dance of a preying mantis at hunt. Flick turned to him. “Blathers, you are one of the bravest and kindest souls I have ever met. I am certain that these insects are full of gratitude to you as their caretaker.”

“Er, I hope that’s the case,” Blathers said, nervous at the idea. “But then, that is my responsibility as a curator. Although, if you have some time tonight, would you mind helping me out with taking care of the bugs?”

And have an excuse to spend even more time around these precious darlings, even to hold them? “M-may I?” Flick squeaked out in excitement.

From then on, whenever Flick was visiting Outset Island, he would get to spend many wonderful hours in the bug exhibit with his new friend Blathers.


End file.
